Obama and Charlie Crist hug again

9/8/12 11:40 AM EDT

Florida's former GOP governor, chased from the party during the 2010 Senate primary by photos of him embracing the president during Obama’s 2009 stimulus tour, is now an independent and spoke for Obama Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.

Here, Crist – now an independent but spoken of widely as a Democratic candidate for the 2014 governor’s race -- delivered another endorsement of the president, telling 11,000 people at the local St. Petersburg College campus that “it takes a cool head to win a hot game.”

As Obama joined Crist on the stage, the two men embraced each other in a full man hug, wrapping themselves in each other’s arms.

“I want to thank Charlie Crist for his introduction, for his support, for showing that the values that we're fighting for are not Democratic value or Republican values, they are American values,” Obama said. “That’s what we're fighting for.”

The president then delivered a speech virtually identical to ones he gave Friday in New Hampshire and Iowa, which were derivative of his Thursday night nomination acceptance speech in Charlotte, N.C.

Obama’s stop here is the first on a two-day, four-city bus tour through Florida. He will spend Monday and Tuesday in Washington before campaigning in Nevada on Wednesday and in Colorado on Thursday.

Neither the president nor the former governor spoke of the hug redux here, though it was the kicker in the prepared remarks Crist was to give at the convention.

“And if you see the president before I do, give him a hug for Charlie!” he was to say at the conclusion of his speech.